Eyewitness Auschwitz:Three Years In The Gas Chambers. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, n.d. 123-133. vago, Lidia Rosenfeld. "Ony Year in the Black Hole of Our Planet Earth:A Personal Narrative." Offer, Dala and Lenore Weitzman . Women of the Holocaust.
"One Year in the Black Hole of our Planet Earth: A Personal Narrative." Offer, Dalia and Lenore J. Weitzman. Women of the Holocaust. 1999. 273-277.
Hitler established the camps when he came into power for the purpose of isolating, punishing, torturing, and killing anyone suspected of opposition against his regime. In the early years of Hitler's reign, concentration camps were places that held people in protective custody. These people in protective custody included those who were both physically and mentally ill, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Jews and anyone against the Nazi regime. By the end of 1933 there were at least fifty concentration camps throughout occupied Europe. At first, the camps were controlled by the Gestapo (police), but by 1934 the S.S. (Hitler's personal security force) was ordered, by Hitler, to control the camps.
For five years, Nazi SS Soldiers were allowed to terrorize and kill millions of people. Most of the killing was conducted at Auschwitz. There were three camps specifically designed for a huge purpose under Auschwitz. With the new finding of Zyklon B, the extermination rate skyrocketed. Auschwitz alone was responsible for 1.1 million deaths, 960,000 of the 1.1 million were Jews.
How could a human feel?” (“The History”). Contraction camps played a huge role in the Nazi’s plan to slaughter the Jewish people, and throughout the holocaust they succeeded in killing approximately two-thirds of the Jews in Europe (“Concentration Camp”). It’s been estimated that 1.1 million to 1.5 million people were murdered at the Nazi concentration camp called Auschwitz (“1945: Liberated”). Over time Auschwitz evolved into a horrific place of torture and injustice and became a destination of mass murder and inhumane treatments. It all began on April 27, 1940 near Oswiecim, Poland when Heinrich Himmler ordered the camp’s construction (“Encyclopedia”).
German told Hungary to enforce anti-Semitism laws and degrees. Hungary followed the command not knowing that Germany was slowly turning up the heat on Hungary. At this time Hungary had the population of 825,000 Jews, a large portion of their population (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). During the war Germany wanted Hungary to deport their Jews to concentration camps. Hungary declined the order and tried to arrange a treaty with the Allied Forces because the Axis was losing the war.
The number of Jews murdered in the gas chambers of Birkenau is estimated at up to one and a half million people: men, women, and children. Almost one-quarter of the Jews killed during World War II were murdered in Auschwitz. Of the 405,000 registered prisoners who received Auschwitz numbers, only a part survived; and of the 16,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were brought there, only 96 survived. Works Cited Bauer, Yehuda. A History of the Holocaust.
Auschwitz was located in Oswiecim, Poland(4). It was established because the central intersection of roads and railways(4). It was a place where Jews were sent from all over Europe to undergo a selection to decide whether an individual would be worked to death or burned to death depending on size, gender, age, and health(4). Many of those who did not make it were burned or they suffocated in a gas chambers(4). Auschwitz was known as the world’s largest torture center(4).
Most of the victims left were from other countries. 6,000 Jehovah's witnesses, over 15,00 homosexuals, 400 “colored” children, and over 5,000,000 jews were killed. Hitler’s anti-Semitism grew out of anger because the germans lost the war. He blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat in the war. Hitler also used the Jews as an excuse for all the problems that Germany was facing.
5 Apr. 2014. PDF File. “Information on the Organization of a Typical Concentration Camp.” The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933-1945. Editor Geoffrey P. Margaree.